Surgery offers the best outcome for prostrate cancer

Prostatectomy, a surgical procedure to remove prostrate cancer, offers longer survival rates than radiation therapy, careful monitoring, or hormone therapy for men with localised prostate cancer. Localised prostrate cancer is a common form of the disease in which the cancer has not yet spread to other organs. However, there is no agreement on the best treatment for patients and treatment differences in routine health care practice. Researchers from the Geneva University, Switzerland studied 844 men with localised prostate cancer, including 158 who underwent prostatectomy, 205 had radiation therapy, 378 had careful monitoring and treatment if needed, 72 received hormone therapy and 31 had other types of therapy. In general, the type of therapy had little impact on the five-year survival rate from prostate cancer. The exception was treatment with hormone therapy alone, which resulted in a worse five-year survival than the other therapies. At 10 years, however, the survival differences emerged between the groups. Patients treated with radiation therapy or followed with careful monitoring had prostate cancer-related survival rates of 75 and 72 per cent, respectively, whereas for those treated with surgery it was 83 per cent. Further analysis showed that the inferior survival seen with radiation therapy and close monitoring was largely confined to patients younger than 70 years or those with aggressive cancers. The findings showed that prostatectomy was associated with the best long-term prognosis— in particular, for younger patients and patients with (aggressive) tumours. Thus, this study can help patients and practitioners to choose the type of treatment for localised prostrate cancer. However, more clinical trials are needed to provide conclusive evidence.